It's winter at last!

Finally!
So what, that, we had a dry christmas and a rather warm first day of the new year? So what, that, Every time, we saw a few flurries, we let our hopes raise for the ground to be covered in an all-white blanket only to find them melting away as soon as they touched the earth? Though a little later than every year and a lot less than usual, it did snow! Wednesday afternoon, It had started with teeny tiny flakes and, within no time, the grey sky was pouring big, soft and fluffy ones, which had given the entire city a very serene look. The leafless trees, the evergreen shrubs and the soft grass, all had acquired a dainty and pristine white angel-like beauty. We had gone out trying to catch them with our tongues and had managed to taste a few. We tried to enjoy it as much as we could as we knew this one is not going to be like the one before.

One lucky Friday night, about a month ago, in January - All night long! We had woken up in the morning to find the nice surprise ever! We had perched up on the window sills to watch the last bits of those snowflakes filing up the sky. We had pressed our little noses to the glass door observing the parking lots/ cars/ driveways being cleaned. Needless to say, we just loved it- the beautiful pure white layer, everywhere all around.

And then, we had gone out, all geared up, and had our snow ball fights and built our snow princess. The littlest of us all, didn't take well the whole concept of snowballs hitting her and threw a huge fit. But she did cheer for us while we were busy making our snow princess. Until, she threw a fit again and we realized that, in our ignorance, we had used her crown, to be-deck the princess. So, the crown exchanged hands and a new one was found, rather hastily.

When the snow started melting, creating puddles of water, we had a gala time again jumping in them. The huge pile turned into ice, held its place for a long time, sitting in our front yard daring the sun to turn it into water. Melting very slowly as if waiting for more of the newer snow to join in..

The holidays

We are here and all in good health (lemme do a touchwood real quick unless those much-scared infections make a comeback in my family)? Though, chinipie kept insisting the entire last half of december, much to mom's and dad's anxiety, I am sick. I am very very sick.. Poor parents couldn't figure out why their lovely dughter would feel so and tried, in vague, to erase any such thoughts from her mind. Only when chinipie declared, one fine morning, I am bored of being sick. I miss my school., that it dawned to them that the whole concept f uch a long holiday is new to her. The only time she skipped her schjol was when she was not well and mommy kept her home. Naturally, she put two and two together and concluded that she is sick. Amazing, how their mind works in such a simple fashion!

So the school was off for entire two (holiday) weeks in december which when mommy counted actually came out to be ei-gh-t-een days!  18 dark, cold and wintry days, stuck in the house with two very active kids and with the dad absconding (read slogging@office ) for unreasonably looongg hours!  Mommy declared that unless the dad had some good plans, she is off to her Mom's place. The threat never even came close to being executed as when mom checked the flights, the prices (even after excluding the dad) were high enough for her to abandon any plans to travel for next two years at least!  Nevertheless, the dad, seeing the plight of his highly motrified wife, took a week off(he hadn't taken a single day off the entire year!). Mommy, very generously, ignored the fact that half the time he was still working from home, and did make two rushes to the office for some urgent meetings. Also, she pardoned the messy state of the home - owing to another fact that the two different set of guests, who were to visit us during the holidays, cancelled their plans. As mommy had been busy preparing the meals (as her plan ahead initiative) so that they could spend most of the time showing the guests around the city instead of the kitchen, the entire house had been turned topsy-turvy.
Hassled, momma asked chinipie, doesn't all this mess bother you?
Contemplating, for a while, which answer would please her mom, she decided to stick to her own self and said,no
Momma, then turned to sugar, her little one, who just turned her back and continued with her precious contribution in giving the house a look of a dumpyard.
With lots of expectations, she then, looked upon the dad and even hoped that he would volunteer to help her cleaning up; instead got an advice to ignore. So, mom made it her mantra, and as much as it bothered her, didn't even move a finger to clean. She, even, took it a step further and started dumping things, secretly hoping, that eventually she might get a Helping hand. Turned out that she had been entirely singled out here and shez the only one, in the family, who gets irritated by the uncleanliness. She had to give up after a few days of fretting and fuming!

The holidays were well spent, despite of such minor episodes, which have acquired a tendency to occur at a more frequent rate than expected in our household. We spent an entire day at a nearby amusement park, enjoying the fun rides (an unusual experience at this time of the year where we are) and signing the day off with a special holiday light and sound display. Another day was spent at the children's museum, yet another watching the disney princess stories on ice(after which both the girls put on their fluffy shoes and skate, twirl and whirl on the kitchen floor pretending the hardwood floor to be ice). We also revamped the kids room with their favourite princesses and fairies wall decor.

Santa had left some exciting gifts which included the nail paint(of course princess ones!). Mom was treated with an exclusive spa treatment with a perfectly finished manicure and pedicure. Thanks Santa! But as he came on christmas eve vs the actual christmas evening, it was declared that the missing gifts(From the list) will be delivered tonight. Uh oh! Mommy took all the efforts to convince that he comes only once and did indeed come on the correct day and time! And yes! That morning, first thing chinipie did was- came running downstairs to check if indeed he had come and on finding the gifts, she had come running to me- momma, santa did come! And he left lots Of gifts for me and Sugar. Then, she had one running to the dad and repeted the same excitedly! Again, a dash to her room to wake her sis up and share the exciting news. In case you are wondering why she was surprised, that's coz according to her this wasn't winter and most certainly not the christmas time! Why? Coz - in her words - It isn't snowing at all. How can it be winters? How can it even be christmas? We didn't even get to make a snowman! And the christmas has to be a white one! While mommy wondered at her daughter's logic ( and thanked the stars, silently, for not sending the winters this year), she assured her girl that, most certainly, it would snow and we would get to make a snowman. Only to find her crying, one morning, on her bed - it's not even snowing. How will we celebrate christmas? though, she played alng with her dad and mom, and involved her baby sister too. And, together, they decorated the christmas tree, decorated a gingerbreadhouse and made cookies, and left a bowl of "yummy halwa", a plate of cookies, a cup of hot cocoa for Santa and went outside to sprinkle oats and sarkled sugar for Santa's reindeers. On seeing the cup empty (and, of course, after opening all the gifts), she did, indeed go out to check if the oats were gone. Mommy's heart was pounding very fast, expecting, another loud bawl, but God is indeed, merciful! Voila! The oats were gone! Must have been mom's lucky day! Later, while playing with her newly received toys, and while thinking aloud what should be on next ear's list, chini declared, Christmas is my favourite holiday! And mine too, sugar chimed in.

The gingerbread house - captured before it collapsed!

Food for reindeer(in the packet)

Stay tuned. There's a lot more to tell you all.

The first snow

The first snow.. I would have loved it,  i would have enjoyed the snow.. Only if it was a matter of vacationing for a couple of days..

The snow is turning into sleet as soon as it hits the car now. The wiper is just nominal as it is smudging way more than its cleaning.

And it's snowing.... And raining... Hard. And we are on the road I76 enrojte to NJ. Visibility is poor owing to the deadly combo of the mist, the rain and the snow. "How can it rain and snow at the same time?", the dad asks. The passing eight wheelers splash huge amount of water on the windscreen reducing the visibility furthermore and the heart almost skips a beAt as the minivan, we are in, skids a little on the narrow trail of snow. The dad is a careful driver though and balances well.. We are already driving at 35mph on a freeway where until last week 80mph was the minimum. But, not today. We already crossed 3 very gruesome accident sites on our way. Good that the kids are distracted with their dora dvd, or else chini would have worried to sickness about everything. Anyways, the 3 ladies of the house are alreAdy down with cough and cold. I cant even believe we are out of the house in this condition(of health and the weather), leave alone travelling. Normally, snow would have sent me back under my bed covers. "Why are we going this far again?" the dad asks. I just smile. It's one of our very close friend's son's birthday and the plans to meet up has been made almost 2 months back. We could have cancelled. But decided otherwise. For two reaons - the kids fall sick so often that our social life had almost come to zero at a certain point (Which was proving to be unhealthy for all of us). That's when we had decided, we would try to be as good a sport as possible, in sickness and in health. Not on the cost of your lives, you fools!! Yeah! Cmon hit me now! Only fools like us would venture out of the house in this storm! Circular storms, that too, coming from colorado. The second reason, we had checked the weather this morning and though it suggested snow by the afternoon, we didn't think it would be this gross. Afterall, it's still autumn. The trees are still in the midst of changing colours and are not even half-way close to have shed them. The positive - the roads are not too bad - yet. This is the first snow, remember? And they are not entirely deserted either! I draw a solace in the fact that there are bunch of others out like us!.. And the snowy rainstorm or is it rainy snowstorm.. Has worsened as i type. We cannot see beyond two cars at the max.

Chini is getting restless in the car now. She has already asked 5 times if we have reached anywhere closer to the destination. "are we there yet?" is her favourite question. Normally, we would have said,"do you want me to pull over?" (from her fav silly joe's song) but today, we are not in moods of any jest. The eyes glued to thetr road ahead. Yeah mine too.. Am the co-driver after all. " please put snow princess dora on." she demands ." it's a perfect watch for todays weather". I stretch and fibble and fumble complying to her request and trying not to disturb( read irritate ) the one in the driver's seat. The Minute the dvd starts, he says,"i wonder how can that backpack hold so much froma pail to umbrellas to the life jacket." it takes me a while to realise hes talking about the purple big eyed backpack dora carries. "on top of it the poor girl carries it all the time without any complains or visible signs of tiredness. We used to be crushed under the dead weghts of our school bags." i just smile, thinking to myself" oh so its okay to talk today." normally, on trips like these, even smaller than these, any attempt to make a noise results in , let's say, facing his music(wrath). May be the snow has cooled him down, i mumble, in my mind though, as we enter a very very snowy patch again ( yeah for a while, the rain and the snow have been alternating). And we cannot see beyond the tail lights of the car must ahead of us, though that car is almost at a distance of 3 cars. "Benny should be given a couple of vicks tablets" he adds. " uh-oh" i reply as we pass another accident struck car that has lost its fender. " sometimes i feel that i can earn billions dubbing all those funny voices of these characters", the dad muses again. Now the chill has frozen his head for sure! I think as our vehicle splurges in a pool of snow.

"i love snow,momma" chini declAres. "i want to make snowman" sugar chips in....
And that makes me the mean witch who hates snow... I can even picture myself on that broom trying to destroy the magic snowy forest!!